Replace all newlines between "two lines with certain patterns" with a comma in vim

Question

If I have to replace newlines with comma for all lines between Pattern 1 and Pattern 2, how do I do it?

From:

Pattern 1  
abcd
edfgads asd
adsad
...
Pattern 2

to:

Pattern 1, abcd, edfgads asd, adsad, ..., Pattern 2

Answer 1

How about

:%s/Pattern 1\_.\{-}Pattern 2/\=join(split(submatch(0), "\n"), ", ")/g

Search

Pattern 1     # obvious
\_.           # any character including newline
\{-}          # repeat non-greedily (vim's way of writing *?)
Pattern 2     # obvious

The replace part should be clear without an explanation.

Answer 2

Use Pattern 1 and Pattern 2 as addresses, see :help cmdline-ranges:

:/^Pattern 1/,/^Pattern 2/-1 s/\n/, /

Answer 3

:g/Pattern1/norm V/Pattern2^MgJ

• :g/ on lines matching Pattern1, run the normal mode keystrokes:

  • visual select as far as... /search for Pattern2
  • gJ Join selected lines, without adding spaces

  NB. Type the ^M with Ctrl-V <Enter>, or Ctrl-Q <Enter>

Answer 4

For vim it would be

:%s/\n/, /g

You search for a newline character: \n and replace it with comma and space: , which is done globally g, these options are split by / character.

More info about replace in vim you can find here

Answer 5

You can put line number while substituting.

:{pattern1LineNo},{pattern2LineNo}s/\n/, /g